Sports goggles, used herein to describe all types of sports eyewear including protective prescription and non-prescription goggles, prescription and non-prescription glasses, etc., with all types of vision correcting or enhancing lenses or without lenses to function solely as protection to the area of the eyes, are commonly used during sports and athletic activities. Such sport goggles are used by participants to not only provide clear vision, but may also be required protection for the user's eyes.
Although eye protection can be incorporated into other headgear, such as a helmet, many types of sport goggles are held on the user's head by the use of one or more straps that attach to the frames of the sport goggles. Such straps generally engage each side of the sports goggle frame and extend behind the user's head. Most often these straps are adjustable through the use of buckles on one or more sides of the strap and are often elastic to hold the sports goggles on the user's head and in proper position over the user's eyes so that the sport goggles do not move and interfere with the user during play.
Moreover, the sport goggle straps known in the art are usually one or more thin rubber bands that are attached to each side of the sport goggle frames and wrap around the back of the user's head. These straps are most problematic for girls with longer hair, where the placement of the straps often interferes with the girls' ponytails.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,428,167 and 7,992,228 are two patents that attempt to address the need for a sport goggle strap for use with a girl's ponytail. However, these attempts are of limited benefit. More specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 6,428,167 uses a special ponytail holder member that is threaded onto a strap member formed of rubber bands. The ponytail holder member is attached to the goggle frames through the use of one or more straps with loops and buckles.
Of course, if one strap is used to reduce the number of straps, loops and buckles in U.S. Pat. No. 6,428,167, the reference admits that the strap is subject to interference with the ponytail. Moreover, once the sport goggle strap and ponytail holder member are set up they are difficult to adjust for different ponytail placement. Additionally, the ponytail holder member is a flat nylon disc that can have a stiff edge and can slide on the user's hair.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,992,228 describes a strap that uses a specialized frame connector and a specialized diverter to attach the strap to the sport goggle frame and separate two straps so that they may be placed above and below the user's ponytail. The frame connector has cooperating components that allow the parts to swivel relative to one another to move the position of the straps higher and lower on the user's head. The diverter provides a fixed angle between the straps exiting the upper and lower exits of the diverter. However, like U.S. Pat. No. 6,428,167, the item described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,992,228 is complex with many different features.
In keeping, a sport goggle strap that can accommodate a ponytail worn in different locations on the back of a user's head without adjustment of the strap and provide simple and comfortable support for sports goggles would advance the art.